FacebookThe twelve album shortlist for the 2012 Mercury Prize, awarded to the best – by whatever standard the judges choose to use – British or Irish album of the past twelve months was announced yesterday, and I was pleased to see that Richard Hawley made the cut because I get to use the clever (by my standards, at least) post title above and use this sharp photo of Mr. Hawley adjusting his specs.

Truth be told, I’m a bit surprised that Standing at the Sky’s Edge made the cut. Hawley shortlisted before with 2006’s Cole’s Corner, which is as perfect example of what he’s come to be known for in his solo career – classically-styled and richly-adorned romantic pop showcasing his deep baritone and twanging guitarwork – so to recognize him again for a record that seeks to distance itself from that stereotype by way of psychedelic rock jams is a touch unexpected. I personally like the record as it really lets Hawley rip on guitar in a way that he doesn’t typically – it’s louder and rawer but still unimpeachably tasteful – but I do hope it’s more a stylistic sidebar rather than new direction because, well, everyone likes the croony Rich.

To hear both sides impeccably presented, I highly recommend cueing up this live performance at the BBC last weekend where Hawley, in his hometown of Sheffield, is accompanied for two career-spanning sets by the BBC Philharmonic. It’s as gorgeous sounding as it would appear on paper, and as BBC doesn’t like to archive their stuff indefinitely, it’s only available to stream for a couple more days. Hopefully eventually it’ll be given a live release because, well, it should. Hop to the 32 minute mark to hear Jarvis Cocker’s introduction – Jarvis should always be heard – or to the 35th minute for the start of the show. And while you’re at it, read these features interviews at Toast, The Sheffield Telegraph, and The Belfast Telegraph. Also, watch this studio session video for his new single.

Video: Richard Hawley – “Seek It” (live at Yellow Arch Studios)

As for the rest of the Mercury nominees, they line up as follows. And as has become a habit, more than a few of them are coming through town in the next few weeks – Alt-J at Wrongbar on September 19, Ben Howard at Sound Academy on September 24, and Django Django at Wrongbar on September 25. Not Hawley though – he hasn’t been back since December 2007, but hey – we can hope.

Billboard and The Quietus collect some nominee reactions. The winner of the 2012 Mercury Prize will be announced on November 1.

Alt-J / An Awesome Wave / MP3: “Tessalate”
Django Django / Django Django / MP3: “Default”
Field Music / Plumb / MP3: “A New Town”
Ben Howard / Every Kingdom / Video: “Keep Your Head Up”
Richard Hawley / Standing at the Sky’s Edge / MP3: “Down In The Woods”
Michael Kiwanuka / Home Again / MP3: “Tell Me A Tale”
Lianne La Havas / Is Your Love Big Enough? / Video: “Lost & Found”
Sam Lee / Ground of its Own / Stream: “George Collins”
The Maccabees / Given To The Wild / MP3: “Go”
Plan B / Ill Manors / Video: “Ill Manors”
Roller Trio / Roller Trio / Video: “R-O-R'”
Jessie Ware / Devotion / Video: “Wildest Moments”

The Guardian has an interview, MTV a bluffer’s guide, and Baeble Music a video session with Alt-J, who’ve just debuted a new video and are presently favoured to win the big prize.

Video: Alt-J – “Fitzpleasure”

Pitchfork has details on Field Music’s forthcoming covers mini-album Playm, due out later this Fall.

Mumford & Sons have released a video from their new album Babel, due out September 25.

Video: Mumford & Sons – “I Will Wait”

Rolling Stone has premiered a track from Tim Burgess of The Charlatans’ new solo record Oh No I Love You, out October 1 in the UK. The Independent also has an interview with Burgess, who reveals that a new Charlatans album will be on the way sometime next year.

MP3: Tim Burgess – “A Case For Vinyl”
Video: Tim Burgess – “White”

Neil Halstead has released a video from his new album Palindrome Hunches, and it gives you a pretty good idea of what his show at The Dakota on October 8 will look like.

Video: Neil Halstead – “Digging Shelters”

Frightened Rabbit are previewing their new State Hospital EP every which way ahead of its release on September 25. The video for the title track was revealed a couple weeks back and now Drowned In Sound has an acoustic video performance of that same tune and DIY has an acoustic demo video of the song, “Boxing Night”. The band are at The Mod Club on October 10 and Mark Grainger writes and Clash have interviews with Scott Hutchison.

Billboard and State talk to Two Door Cinema Club, in town at the Sound Academy on October 11.

The Guardian talks to Natasha Khan of Bat For Lashes. Her new album The Haunted Man is out October 23.

Consequence Of Sound has the full routing of the Saint Etienne Fall North American tour, which kicks off October 24 in Toronto at the Opera House, and adds an interview with singer Sarah Cracknell for good measure.

The Joy Formidable have offered the first video from their new album Wolf’s Law, due out in January. That’s right – the song of the same name for which they released a video last month won’t actually appear on the album.

Video: The Joy Formidable – “Cholla”

Clash meets Hot Chip. Pretty sure they’ve met before, but whatever. Exclaim and The Georgia Straight also have chats.

DIY and Uncut celebrate the 20th anniversary of Ride’s seminal Going Blank Again by talk to Mark Gardener and Andy Bell, respectively.

The Quietus gets an update from Brett Anderson about how recording sessions for that new Suede album are going. How well? Well enough that Brett Anderson is willing to talk about it.

Noel Gallagher gives NME some odds for an Oasis reunion – not good.

Spinner talks to Stevie Jackson about going it solo for a bit.

Wild Peace, the dreampoppy debut from London’s Echo Lake has been out for a while but due to tragic circumstances – drummer Pete Hayes passed away days before it was released in June – so they’re just getting back to doing press for it now. Drowned In Sound has a complete stream of the album along with song-by-song annotations by the band.

Video: Echo Lake – “Wild Peace”
Video: Echo Lake – “In Dreams”
Stream: Echo Lake / Wild Peace

Spinner chats with Florence Welch of Florence & The Machine.

NPR welcomes Bloc Party for a KCRW session.

Elbow bassist Pete Turner talks to NME about their just-released Dead In The Boot b-sides comp, as well as their plans for their next proper studio album.

Under The Radar presents a video session with Anna Calvi comprised of original instrumentals recorded at and inspired by works in the Tate Modern in London.

NPR, The Los Angeles Times, Digital Spy, and PopMatters interview Pet Shop Boys about their new album Elysium.

There’s a video for the first new Dubstar song in forever – it was originally released in time for Record Store Day in the Spring. A new album is allegedly in the works.

Video: Dubstar – “Circle Turns”

State chats with The Futureheads.

The Grid and The National Post talk to The xx.

DIY and Spinner have features on The Vaccines.

Spinner has an interview and The Line Of Best Fit a video session with Charli XCX.

Clash and The Quietus have features on TOY, but don’t use the all-caps presentation so since I presume they’d know better than I, henceforth neither shall I. Toy. There you still. Still a rubbish name.

Frank YangI would say that a band that’s been around as long, as influential and as consistently excellent as The Wedding Present has been over their quarter-century existence is entitled to a little indulgence, and what better occasion than the 21st anniversary of one of your most beloved albums? But indulgence isn’t the Wedding Present’s style, so rather than make a big production of it, they rolled into town on Wednesday night to do their thing, same as they’ve done a number of times since David Gedge put the Cinerama name on the shelf and brought The Wedding Present out of mothballs.

Unlike their past few visits, however, this show was booked into the cozier Horseshoe rather than their usual digs at Lee’s Palace – a greater than normal number of hot tickets in the city that evening meant that the Toronto concert-going public would be split amongst any number of venues, but another benefit of longevity is a loyal fanbase – for many, when the Wedding Present comes to town and promises to play Bizarro in its entirety, there is no plan B.

Support for this leg of the tour seemed a curious choice on paper – Girl In A Coma hail from San Antonio, are named for a Smiths song and are signed to Joan Jett’s label. What woud you expect them to sound like? If you said a catchy blend of punk aggression and rockabilly twang, you’d be correct. Frontwoman Nina Diaz was petite but had a big presence, both with her guitar and voice – the latter, in particular, was an elastic and expressive instrument that she mostly chose to utilize via snarling but was obviously capable of more. I hadn’t gone in expecting a lot, but was pleasantly surprised and entertained.

My past reviews of Wedding Present shows tended to focus on how consistently good they were and, with the exception of incorporating material from the latest record, how fairly the song selection covered all eras of The Wedding Present’s career. That held true on this night, even with 3/5 of the set fixed in stone 21 years ago. The front bit of the show covered the non-Bizarro material – three new songs and four more strategically picked from key points of their career and which, if presented to someone who’d never heard the band before, would have provided a pretty accurate picture of what they were all about. At any other Wedding Present show, selections like “Corduroy” and “Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft” would have been more than a meal, but at this one they were just the appetizer.

The beginning of the main course was heralded by the PA, through which came an audio collage of the late, great John Peel intoning the band’s name over and over again – it went on a little while as the Wedding Present were one of Peel’s very favourite acts and were fixtures on his radio show, and as soon as it ended, the wonderful descending riff of “Brassneck” began and they were off. Bizarro might now be old enough to drink in all 50 states, but it’s aged amazingly well, as the live renderings would attest. The dry, dueling guitars with their combination of jangle and pummel have lost none of their vitality and the tales of romantic frustration and futility that David Gedge has been mining and pointedly articulating for a quarter-century will never cease being topical. And they certainly still inspire fervor amongst the faithful, a fact borne out by the enthusiastic middle-aged mosh pit that frequently broke out throughout the night, particularly for the heavier moments of “Kennedy” and the nine minute-plus centerpiece, “Take Me!”. The relatively gentle “Be Honest” provided the denouement to a run-through of a classic album that’s sadly not really appreciated as such – just as The Wedding Present aren’t properly appreciated for all they’ve done. But that’s those who don’t get it’s loss. For the rest of us, well, Seamonsters turns 20 next year. See you there.

And oh yeah, early on in the show I got hit in the head with a semi-inflated sex doll. Why someone had that with them and not a beach ball, I will never know. But I’m over it.

Exclaim was also in attendance and has some thoughts on the show.

Photos: The Wedding Present, Girl In A Coma @ The Horseshoe – April 14, 2010
MP3: The Wedding Present – “The Thing I Like Best About Him Is His Girl Friend”
MP3: Girl In A Coma – “Clumsy Sky”
MP3: Girl In A Coma – “Static Mind”
Video: The Wedding Present – “Don’t Take Me Home Until I’m Drunk”
Video: The Wedding Present – “Ringway To Seatac”
Video: The Wedding Present – “I’m From Further North Than You”
Video: The Wedding Present – “Don’t Touch That Dial”
Video: The Wedding Present – “Interstate 5”
Video: The Wedding Present – “Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah”
Video: The Wedding Present – “Chant Of The Ever Circling Skeletal Family”
Video: The Wedding Present – “No Christmas”
Video: The Wedding Present – “Loveslave”
Video: The Wedding Present – “Boing!”
Video: The Wedding Present – “Come Play With Me”
Video: The Wedding Present – “Silver Shorts”
Video: The Wedding Present – “Three”
Video: The Wedding Present – “Go Go Dancer”
Video: The Wedding Present – “Blue Eyes”
Video: The Wedding Present – “Dalliance”
Video: The Wedding Present – “Crawl”
Video: The Wedding Present – “Brassneck”
Video: The Wedding Present – “Why Are You Being So Reasonable Now?”
Video: The Wedding Present – “Nobody’s Twisting Your Arm”
Video: Girl In A Coma – “Static Mind”
Video: Girl In A Coma – “El Monte”
Video: Girl In A Coma – “Their Cell”
Video: Girl In A Coma – “Clumsy Mind”
Video: Girl In A Coma – “Say”
Video: Girl In A Coma – “Road To Home”
MySpace: The Wedding Present
MySpace: Girls In A Coma

Kate Nash tells Spinner that people seeing her on her upcoming North American tour – which begins April 26 at the Mod Club in Toronto – shouldn’t automatically assume they’ll hear “Foundations”. But they will hear her new record My Best Friend Is You, which comes out next week. One assumes.

So Much Silence talks to Frightened Rabbit frontman Scott Hutchison.

Gareth Keenan investigates the new video from Slow Club.

Video: Slow Club – “Giving Up On Love”

CBC and Spinner talk to Handsome Furs about how it feels to be Juno Award nominees.

White Hinterland will follow up her show at the Drake on Sunday night, April 18, with an in-store at Soundscapes on April 19 at 6PM.

MP3: White Hinterland – “Icarus”
MP3: White Hinterland – “No Logic”

The Acorn will celebrate the June 1 release of No Ghost with a show at Lee’s Palace on June 11 and a handful of other dates around southern Ontario and Montreal.

All those who like their synth-pop slinky and ’80s-styled would do well to check out New York’s Class Actress at Wrongbar on June 12.

MP3: Class Actress – “All The Saints”

The folks at Buffet Libre have put together some impressive compilations in the last while, but they may have outdone themselves with Peace, a 180-song collection featuring artists from all over the world and assembled in conjunction with Amnesty International. They’re offering the collection for a minimum donation of 5 Euro to Amnesty and if you need further persuading, they’ve made a number of tracks available to download for free. Goodness knows that these ones – a Kate Bush cover by Patrick Wolf, a new Voxtrot song and – most excitingly – the first new Dubstar song in a decade. Dubstar! With Sarah Blackwood! Exclamation!

MP3: Patrick Wolf – “Army Dreamers” (Kate Bush cover)
MP3: Voxtrot – “Whiskey and Water”
MP3: Dubstar – “I’m In Love With A German Film Star”

Record Store Day hits tomorrow, April 17, and honestly the list of RSD exclusive goodies that will go on sale Saturday has reached ludicrous proportions. There’s a few digital items being made available but the emphasis is hugely on limited edition wax, which I find both exciting and bewildering. I mean, I know that vinyl continues to make a comeback – I myself decided to buy LPs whenever possible at the start of this year – but to see people who weren’t even alive the last time turntables were in vogue scrambling for 7″s is… neat. To do their part in marking the occasion, PitchforkTV is streaming I Need That Record, a documentary on record stores for one week, and if you miss it (or love it), it is one of the items that will go on sale tomorrow. Convenient! Spinner also talks to Flaming Lip Wayne Coyne about the phenomenon of Record Store Day.

Video: I Need That Record! The Death (Or Possible Survival) Of The Independent Record Store

NOW looks forward to Record Store Day by talking to some of the proprietors of Toronto shops taking part in the event – I’ve tried to round up as many of the specials and special happenings that people can look forward to at the various shops in the 416 in addition to random and unknowable quantities of the aforementioned RSD exclusive items (most of the store links have details on what they have going on), while eye has done the same in map format:

– Criminal Records has been reporting arrivals of goods via Twitter and Facebook and will be offering discounts on regularly priced merchandise as well as door crashers.
– Soundscapes will be offering 10% off all CDs, vinyl, DVDs and books
– Sonic Boom is having giveaways and hosting an in-store festival starting at 3PM and featuring sets from Valery Gore, Buck 65, METZ, Meligrove Band, Adam Green and Sloan, who are slated to go on around 9. Admission free with donation of a canned good. Update: Lullabye Arkestra are now kicking things off at 2:30, Adam Green is on at 4:45, METZ at 7PM and Pink Eyes from Fucked Up is MC-ing all day.
– Rotate This is having a sale
– Vortex will have a day-long 25% off sale on used items and holding raffles of sweet prizes
– Kops will be hosting an in-store with The Junction at 5PM and City Sweethearts at 6PM.
– Sunrise Records at Yonge and Dundas will have in-store sets from Justin Nozuka, Moneen, Ash Koley, Fox Jaws and Hunter Valentine. Those get started at noon and run all afternoon.
– Slinky Music is having a 10% off sale
– Penguin Music, Neurotica and Hits & Misses are also all listed as participating stores, which means at the least there should be some sort of sale and/or RSD exclusives to be had.

And maybe the greatest record-related thing I’ve seen this week is the return of the Sound Burger, albeit under the less moniker of the Crosley Revolution. There’s probably no way this thing sounds anything but terrible, but the sheer cool points you’d get from having one of these hanging from your belt more than makes up for that. Right? It’s cool, right?